Government Of, For And By The People
LEWIS, ALFRED BAKER
Socialism and Americanism-III Government Of, For And -By The People By Alfred Baker Lewis O ONE will deny that Lincoln 1 ^ 1 was a great American. One of the greatest o f his speeches...
...but the two latter, while they exist, are heavy pensioners upon the first, robbing it of a large portion of its just rights...
...That which fundamentally dietingueshes the slave is that he labors under coercion to satisfy another's sedree.—Herbert Spencer...
...Superintendent, I heard Calvin Coolidge ( o r Al Smith) talk last night at the Republican-Democratic rally and he said that this was a great and glorious country where the people ruled...
...What is it...
...But the most perfect display of arrogance and greed is to be seen in New York State where the utility companies are openly fighting even the most moderate proposals of conservative Rpublicans to moderate proposals of conservative Republicans to strengthen the public service law...
...At the nine o'clock open forum...
...IN A NUTSHELL The greatest burden the workers bear is the very wealth they produce...
...Certainly not...
...The baby was ill but fear of the judge was strong...
...The stationery store must be selling the forms...
...Join the Party...
...This plan for a voluntary contract was never as good and the recalcitrant attitude of the public utilities makes it doubtful whether the minority^ plan for a compulsory rate base is any better...
...Requests will be finest in the order in which they an f t* ceived...
...We have a very small margin of safety in our great cities...
...Veterans o f the class strugg l e in America, don't be stampeded, wheel back into line...
...we learn by action as well as from theory...
...bnt these things are o n l y crumbs...
...Yet today that is n o longer true...
...j We Socialists appeal to Ugufl izens of America to abolish lafl cracy, to end control of gttesal ment and industry by the CSjafl ists, employers, landlords, S B bankers—by voting sensibly...
...Gastonia JUST when the North Carolina Supreme Court is ready to hand down its decision o n the a p peal of the seven convicted labor leaders sentenced to f r om 5 t o 20 years in the pentitentiary who participated in the strike of textile workers in Gastonia, N. C , last summer, the Conference for Progressive Labor Action announces the publication of a pamphlet, describing in vivid manner the events of that memorable struggle...
...To-day a large portion of what men produce is turned into capital for further exploiting men, and the more men labor and toil the bigger capital grows, and the more men struggle the heavier becomes the indebtedness of labor t o capital.— Robert Hunter...
...American industry is not controlled by the American workers...
...I have a right to a say in what my wages should be, and h ow long I have to work...
...when the present agreement expires in May...
...A Housing Conference T^N April 25th it is announced that the American Construction Council will hold a conference in New York on a housing program to end slums...
...Longfellow...
...The workers recently refused a 10 per cent, cut, and Organizer Horace A. Riviere of the United Textile Workers has been active among the French-speaking workers...
...A father was brought into court for failure to provide for bis family...
...The only real and decent alternative is a system of public ownership...
...Easton Plant Unionized EASTON, Pa...
...g S o c r a l s and Republicans both s i satisfied with our present petal cracy...
...The pamphlet entitled, "Gastonia — A Graphic Chapter in Southern Organization," is written by Jessie Lloyd, a labor journalist who was on the scene through most of the strike, and is pamphlet No...
...And just as the representatives I elect vote on what the taxes should be, so I have the right to pass on h ow much profits the owners shall be allowed to make out o f m e and m y w o r k . If any worker started to talk to his boas like that, he would get fired—and probably cat sent to the psychopathic hospital in addition...
...Hosiery Co...
...I have asked at every street and f a c t o ry meeting I have held la the last five years, several hundred meetings altogether, how many in the crowd had ever contributed to the national campaign funds of the Democratic or Republican parties, and only once did a man say he had...
...And whenever I sit at a banquet, where the feast and song are high...
...In the o ld days men produced for themselves, and what they made they largely consumed...
...Knitters Walk Out PHILADELPHIA, (F.P...
...4. That the two paragraphs next above giving the names of the owners, stockholders and security holders, if any, contain not only the list of stockholders and security holders as they appear upon the books of the company, but also, in cases where the stockholder or security holder appears upon the books of the company as trustee or in any other fiduciary relation the name of the person or corporation for whom such trustee is acting, is given...
...And hollow and haggard faces look in at the lighted hall, And wasted hands are extended to catch the crumbs that fall...
...Some day the Southern workers are goin' to quit...
...They have will invoke the power of the courts against any change in the law...
...The Arrogant Public Utilities " ^ A ^ H E R E V E R they get the chance the public utilities, and especially the great power corporations, are intent upon showing that they will fight effective regulation to the bitter, end...
...My life has been one long, happy holiday— Full of work and full of play— And God was good to me every day...
...Reports compiled by the Bureau of Mines for the first two months of 1930 show that accidents at coal mines caused the loss of 379 Uvea...
...s e e I could point to a philanthropist or two—even to their statues—whom Posterity, should it ever turn from admiring the w a y t h ey spent their money to considering the way they got it, will probably compare very unfavorably with Guy Fawkes.—G...
...R. Clynes...
...Knitters in the plant of the Surgical Elastic Knitting Co, Germantown, have walked out following an attempted wage cut o f 25 per cent...
...Room toil 7 E a s t 15th street...
...MnriHiin R . H E A D L E Y . John D., Poet Poet DON'T strike John D. Rockefeller for any mora nice shiny dimes...
...Effective regulation in the public interest of companies run for private profit is logically and practically impossible and the only valuable bills before the New York Legislature are those which give municipalities in New York the right they have in many states, that is, the right to own and manage their own public utilities and especially their own power plants...
...I The committee announced tt tt statement sent to various orrtat zations that due to the HmltttS number of reservations that s sK be placed, and the tremendous dst mand that is being made, thatssm ly such organizations and indtrkm uals as get their requests is e t rJ will stand a chance of hsvuX them filled...
...Branch 210, Workmen's Circle, which initiated the movement by announcing that it will give up i ts usual banquet on May D a y and j o i n in a body the guests at the Panken banquet, expects to have ten tables, seating 100 o f their members, take part in the banquet...
...By b u t t s J^H bread on both sides th2B having to guess which Sldjkl bread is buttered on...
...They do It...
...This disap-/ pointment is natural, just as natural as the apvpointments...
...The man who pays the piper calls the tune, in politics as in everything else...
...Socialism and Americanism-III Government Of, For And -By The People By Alfred Baker Lewis O ONE will deny that Lincoln 1 ^ 1 was a great American...
...plant...
...They protest against the results as we do but they support the policy that produces these results...
...Some people s a y the union is dead...
...What private building for profit without plans has done for us is illustrated in one way by that explosion of gas on Broadway in New York City, which while not serious in itself put 8,000 telephones out of commission as well as for a time part of the fire alarm and street signal system...
...If you saw...
...Getting "Something NoW" *. T Washington Labor, the national weekly of the railroad unions, is complaining bitterly of the appointment by President Hoover of Hughes to the Supreme Court and of John J. Parker to the same judicial body...
...Yet the unplanned and uncoordinated congestion goes on apace...
...s e e We seek justice and fight injustice...
...s e e Even in the political government where we are supposed to govern, the great plutocrats and financiers are the ones who really control...
...Even where the trade unions are s t r o ng enough to enforce their right to a s a y in the determining of wages and hours, they have no right and don't as yet even dare to claim a right, t o pass on the amount of profits the employers make, or limit the power of the owners o f industry to l ay men off o r p u t t h em on short time...
...Tet surely these things whiah affect our lives and livelihood, our wages and hours, and the amount of profits the employers make, affect the great mass of American citizens even more vitally than the taxes and the tariff and the other things that we are allowed to vote about and control through the representatives w h om we elect Yet we ate not allowed to control these things...
...The first step to labor unity in America is to join the Socialist Party...
...They have served notice upon • » BsspwbScan majority that they will not accept for a vorarrtary contract to run for ten years, fixing rates on the basis of » survey of present value...
...In a Nebraska town the pleas of the mother that the baby be taken to a doctor, even if there was nothing to p ay the bill, was agreed to...
...And there, in that camp of famine, in cold and wind and rain, Christ, the great Lord o f ' t h e army, lies dead, upon the plain...
...Yet the workers and farmers don't contribute to their campaign funds...
...South To Obtain Scab Labor PHILADELPHIA...
...Meyer Gillis, Treasurer, 175 East Broadway, New York, N. Y...
...We Socialists also "want something now," but we do not want what Hoover has given us in Parker and Hughes...
...Three thousand members of the Amalgamated Association of Street Railwaymen are asking an increase in wages from the Pittsburgh Railways Co...
...Over 350 union hosiery workers will be jobless hare when the Cadet Knitting C o , recently purchased by southern bankers, moves its plant t o Columbia, Term...
...Instead, he now hands out (or rather his chauffeur does), a card bearing a poem in which he presumably expresses his philosophy of life at 9 1 : / was early taught to work as well as play...
...Julius Gerber, Secretary, 38 New Chambers Street, New York, N. Y. Stockholders holding 1 per cent or more of total amount of stock: None...
...Now that big money isn't quite so easy on Wall Street and office space and expensive housing is overbuilt it appears that the various interests will condescend to note the plight of the poor...
...In Washington they have lobbied disgracefully with the help of the Chairman of the Republican National Committee against the public operation of Muscle Shoals...
...The Amalgamated C l o t h i n g Workers of America, which have always regarded Judge Panken as their leader and guide, m a y have the largest delegation of all...
...The whole force walked out and insist upon a definite understanding which will eliminate all such practices in the future...
...Products from both the Alabama and the Tennessee plant will be finish-processed in Philadelphia, because the Philadelphia imprint on hosiery means a higher sals pole* Join The Party r[E difference between the Socialist P a r t y and other radical groups in America: The Socialist Party vote is greater than the S. L. P. o r Communist vote...
...I'll sentence y o u t o 90 days in jail and suspend sentence to give you 48 hours to get out o f town and take your family with you...
...e • • f A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty Is worth a whole eternity in bondage...
...and this affiant has no reason to believe that any other person, association or corporation has any interest, direct or indirect, in the said stock, bonds or other securities than at so stated by hi...
...The final chapter, dealing with the "Reactions—The Press, The People," leaves the reader with the optimistic hope that unionism is bound to play a part in the f u ture lives of the workers...
...So far as industry, where we make a living and earn our p a y is concerned, this country today is ruled not b y the people and f or the people but by corporation lawyers, for the employers, capitalists and bankers...
...They talk a lot of nonsense to the effect that such rates would be higher than the present rates...
...But we're goin' to have a union...
...Of course, the first .only is meritorious, and to it all the products o f labor rightfully belong...
...Amid the mirth and music I can hear that fearful cry...
...Addison...
...The great mass of the people o f America, the farmers and workers who produce the goods and furnish the services upon which our national well-being is based, d o not rule in the things which are most vital t o them...
...Some way he g o t an old open Ford and started through the Colorado winter t o " g e t out of" town...
...The antics of the prosecution and the attitude of Judge BamhiU are all included in the remarkable picture of southern justice...
...I couldn't support them any better if you did," the desperate father countered, with some apparent justification...
...Amoskeag's company unionized textile workers are threatened with indefinite layoff if they do not accept wage cuts...
...F.P...
...JOHN P A N Z N EB THE BRONX FREE FELLOWSHIP "A Hindu Way of Life" will be the topic of Rama Krishna Lall's address at the 8 o'clock Fellowship Service at the weekly meeting of the Bronx Free Fellowship, Azure Masonic Temple, 1591 Boston road...
...Discrimination was attempted by the mill owner to discourage this move...
...Millions of newspapers definitely hostile to Labor circulate every day because they are bought by working men w h o have not yet acquired the habit of spending their money on a friend instead of an enemy.—J...
...A newspaper map, reviewing the almost identical injunctions that have been applied for b y hosiery companies here and in Philadelphia against the Hosiery Workers Union observed: "The only difference in these injunctions is that each company has its own lawyer to file 'em...
...This form of philanthropic publicity has proved too arrest a strain on bis fortune...
...Extending organization activities for Easton to the neighboring town o f Phillipsburg, N. J., the silk workers unionized 60 men in the Wallace Co...
...As a rule they refer to the Socialists as rather good people but very irnpractical in politics...
...SAMUEL A. DE WITT, Business Manager Sworn to and subscribed before me this 28th day of March, 1930...
...Sandf sull, for instance, one of tsa*T' est owners o f public uUUtlstJH United States, a man wk_9 trols electric power compejriH half the states of the 31 States, contributed in 1828 M campaign funds of both 13ejsj^H ic and Republican candtigSsfl United States senator l a J^H s o that he owned them!jf whichever side won he IRflH the consumers lost...
...o • Suppose a steel mill worker went up to the superintendent of the factory where he was employed, and said, "Mr...
...One of the greatest o f his speeches was his dedicatory address at Gettysburg in which he described the American government as a government of the people, b y the people, and f o r t he people...
...Near East 172nd street, on Sunday evening, April 13th...
...It was the railroad unions that worked hard for the election of Hoover...
...Henry Rauch, acting agent, told the "workers' congress' that cutthroat competition made necessary a reduction in operating costs —wages...
...We at least have the consolation of knowing that the appointments were not written on any ballots that we cast...
...Could the situation have been any worse .if the unions had supported a party of their own...
...I am entitled to share in the rule of this mill...
...also that the said two paragraphs contain statements entbracing affiant's full knowledge and belief as to the circumstances and conditions under which stockholders and security holders who do not appear upon the books of the company as trustees hold stock and securities in a capacity other than that of a bona fide owner...
...We seek free labor and fight wage-slavery...
...The union seeks a raise of five cents an hour for motormen and conductors' t o 75 cents per hour, and a raise of 15 cents ePer hour to 90 cents for operators on one man cars...
...And impeach us all as traitors, both the living and the dead...
...Indicate that every union affiliated with that organization will b e represented by at least ten, while the larger locals will have several tables...
...Then I'll give you 50 days," the judge thundered...
...It was noticed for a day however, and then forgotten...
...The p n ly remedy is, as far as possible, to drive useless labor and idleness out of existence.—Abraham Lincoln...
...the domination of the f a c t o r y over the lives of the people and the development of the spirit of rebellion against their deplorable standards...
...John D. Rockefeller...
...Injunction Uniform EASTON, Pa...
...The purchaser is Caldwell & Co., Investment Bankers, Nashville...
...Both these parties spend millions at each national election...
...One o f these • cases was when Williamfl of Philadelphia, spent Sjfl to get the Republican ncM for United States Senabii-;, Sometimes the same wt*N dividual or corporaticsta^" utes to the campaign f<3 both parties...
...I Reservations, at 52.50 per per-1 son, can be made by addreaiii^l Meyer Gillis, treasurer...
...Murder charges have net been filed against the judge Labor's Dividends Accidents in the coal-mining Industry during February, 1930, caused 160 deaths, according to the Department of Commerce...
...The habits of our whole species fall into three great classes: Useful Labor, Useless Labor, and Idleness...
...Caroline E. Furness Unions, Workmens Circle, Take Tables For Panken Celebration SOCIALIST Party, Workmen's Circle and trade union organisations are working towards an arrangement by which every affiliated branch will have tables at the banquet t o b e tendered former Judge Jacob Panken on the occasion o f his birthday at Beethoven Hall, 210 East Fifth street, on M a y Day...
...Wage Cut Threatened MANCHESTER, N. H. (F.P...
...These union men "want something now...
...The r i ch feast, the b i g favors, the important things, the Democrats and Republicans always do f o r the benefit not of the worker, but o f the employers, capitalists, landlords and bankers, because it is they who p a y the campaign funds of the two old parties...
...Thirty-five reservations have been made on behalf of the officials and executive board members, while twice that number, drawn from the active workers in the rank and file, are said to be planning t o attend...
...Morris Berman, President, Pleasantville, N. Y...
...It takes the redder through all the months of union agitation, the strike, the m o b v i olence tolerated and abetted by the local officials and state militia, the destruction of the strikers' relief station leading up to the final attack on the strikers' headquarters which culminated in the mortal wounding of Police Chief Aderholt...
...The rules and regulations that govern the factories, mines, mills, offices and railroads are made b y the owners for the benefit o f the owners, and the workers have v e r y little if anything to say in the matter at all...
...Parker is only 44 years old and may outlive every other member of the court...
...Their candidate for President has appointed as Chief Justice a man who is a conservative of great ability and a faithful servant of big property interests...
...So here is the "practical" politics of the rail-road unions...
...124 deaths occurred in bituminous mines and the remaing 36 were in the anthracite mines o f Pennsylvania...
...The two trials of the strike leaders, the first ending in a mistrial, are portrayed with telling effect...
...We may at least be thankful for one thing—he went in for f i nance instead of literature...
...STREET RAILWAVMEX A S K RAISE PITTSBURGH (F.P...
...A Judge And A Baby "Passing the buck" from one c i ty to the other struck a snag in "Justice" Court in Denver...
...My Commission expires March 30, 1930...
...The Socialist is more tolerant as t o individual members' views than any other radical party in America, As to the charge of opportunism, we s a y w e learn by doing things, as well as b y reading...
...New York, N. Y. Business Manager—Samuel A. De Witt, 7 East 15th Street, New York, N. Y. 2. That the owner is: Owner—The New Leader Publishing Association, 7 East 15th Street, New York, N. Y...
...A starving and numberless army, at all the gates of life— The poverty-stricken millions, who challenge our wine and bread...
...In publishing the pamphlet the Research and Publications Committee of the C. P. Is, A. in an introduction states: "The graphic account of the tragic events in Gastonia as told by Miss Jessie Lloyd . . . is not offered . . . merely as interesting reading matter...
...F.P...
...F-P...
...The lives lost in Marion, and the untold suffering of the workers of Gastonia, Elizabe thton and Marion will have been all in vain if the Labor Movement does not d r aw the instructive lessons that these events and developments s u g g e s t" The pamphlet takes up the general attitude o f the natives, both of the working and owning classes, towards unionism, vividly portrays the terrible living conditions o f the workers in that textile town...
...In Parker they have helpd to place an enemy of their own organizations in a position of enormous power...
...In the same city with the help of Secretary of the Interior, Wilbur, they have used their influence to impair the efficiency of the power commission and to defeat the plain intent of Congress to give preference to municipal power plants in allotting power from Boulder Dam...
...It is w e Socialists who ( I mand that government of the pel pie, by the people and far fm people, shall be once more tstaa lished in this land...
...And they have that something, now...
...It is 32 pages in length, divided in chapters for convenient reading and is n ow on sale at 10 cents each or six cents each f or bundles of 25 o r more...
...So when the Democrats or Republicans get elected they may d o little favors occasionally f o r the workers and farmers, when it won't hurt the employers o r bankers to do it, o r in order to keep us quiet when we begin to b e a little sore...
...because they have bought and paid tor the Democratic and Republican parties...
...Just as I vote f o r the mayor and c i ty council I have a right to vote for the superintendent and the board of directors of this corporation where I work...
...We seek peace and order and combat the murder of people, the class war, and the social anarchy.—William Liebknecht, s e e Through want of enterprise and faith men are where they are, buying and selling, and spending their lives like serfs.—Thoreau...
...Reports received b y Marx Lewis, secretary of the Panken anniversary dinner committee...
...I can't get work," he pleaded...
...So they might be theoretically if it were not true that already whe companies charge all the traffic will bear, which in some cases is not the 8% on reproduction costs which they say the federal courts would allow them and which they clearly intend to claim whenever they can get away with it...
...Statement of the ownership, management, circulation, etc, required by the Act of Congress, August 24, 1812, of THE NEW LEADER, Published weekly at New York, N. Y , March 28,' 1930, State of New York, County of New York, ss: Before me a notary publis in and for the state and county aforesaid personally appeared Samuel A. De Witt, who, having been dully sworn according to law, deposes and says that he is the Business Manager of The*New Leeader and that the following is, to the best of bis knowledge and belief, a true statement of the ownership, management, and circulation of the aforesaid publication for the date shown in the above caption, required by the Act of August 24, 1912, embodied in SecUon 443, Postal Laws and Regulations, to wit: 1. That the names and addresses of the publisher, editor, managing editor, and business manager arePublisher—The New Leader Publishing Association 7 East 15th Street, New York, N. Y. Editor—James Oneal, 7 East 15th Street, New York, N. Y. Managing Editor—Edward LeVinson, 7 East 15th Etreet...
...At the present time they are operating an open shop plant at Decatur, Ala., where workers are forced to sign yellow dog contracts...
...3. That the known bondholders, mortgagees and other security holders owning or holding 1 per cent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities are: None...
...You won't get 'em...
...4 in the Progressive Labor Library Series...
...While organizations are acting to be represented by^whofc N e gations, individual Socialists sjM trade unionists are sending M their own reservations, indieatkaw that the Panken dinner will t sM ness the greatest outpourbtf sB progressives in e v e r y branch oflkX Socialist and labor movement team has taken place at banquets SB many years...
...We sincerely advocate unemployment insurance, old age pensions, the shorter work day and 5day week t o relieve the misery o f the unemployed, and not only use these demands for propaganda and demonstrations...
...Locals have been organized, he claims, for the various mill departments...
...In Parker the President has appointed a man who ruled against sending organizers into the unorganized mining region of West Virginia and who gave judicial sanction to the "yellow dog" contract...
...The baby was dead...
...a lot o f skinny monkeys in the jungle carrying nuts for one fat lazy monkey," the author winds up the story by quoting a native worker, "you'd wonder*why they didn't quit...
...We venture to-guess that nothing will come of it worth very much unless and until the necessity of municipal housing under expert authority is frankly faced...
...A Mighty Army There is a mighty army that besets us round with strife...
...Surgical knitters, who are highly skilled and well organized, number only about 50 in all of Philadelphia...
...And within there is light and plenty, and odors fill the air, But without there is cold and darkness, and hunger, and despair...
...At the n ew location the plant will operate non-union...
...Bernard Shaw...
...The International Pocket Book Makers Union, one o f the many labor organizations Panken helped found and assisted in its numerous struggl«s, will have a delegation equally ^s large...
...Dobcs^B b i g oil magnate, at the a j ^H the investigations into the eft^H dais in 1924, testified to thtfH thing, namely, that in 199|sH contributed to the national mmpaign funds of both the DSSSMI and Republicans...
...Bankers Move Phila...
...Well, I am an American citizen, and one o f the people...
...Sometimes there is an especially flagrant case of buying elections and then the public hears about it, but generally it is done quietly, efficiently and without too much publicity...
...VVJ primarily think of a slave as one who is owned by another...
...As proof of our tolerance, we cite the fact that our press and party have helped such organizations as the I. W. W . in their strikes and collection of defense funds...
Vol. 10 • April 1930 • No. 10
